Way Down Market

You know the sun has set on the British Empire when you see this monstrously ugly statue that will be on display for six months on the fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square. (Make sure to enlarge the picture for the full view of the mediocrity.) Naturally, we shouldn't criticize. The "artist" is disabled, which would make us heartless bastards for even suggesting that her art belongs in a distant spot in a dense garden on some remote estate that even the owners don't wish to visit often.

This is "Cool Brittannica," that coalition of rock music and hip Labour where a ferris wheel became the perfect symbol to celebrate the Millenium. For the next significant historical event maybe they could build a water slide. Or a fun house. It's a lowering of achievement not seen since the Roman Empire collapsed. I haven't felt the desire to visit London since the Third Way debuted, and you can bet I will not spend one dollar there until Ron "Red" Livingstone is long gone, which, considering the deliberate policy of importing non-assimilated voters, doesn't seem likely in the near future.

Let's face it, low class is there to stay in Britain, embraced by a mass media BBC where programs that include two decorators who look to be in the rough trade who might be on a first name basis with the Russian mafia can re-do your house in two days is high art. And that's a gem compared some of their programming. I still remember the funeral for the 'People's Princess," as Tony Blair referred to Princess Diane, with the procession of the handicapped in wheelchairs following faithfully, sort of like abandoned favorite pets. I suspect it was a Peter Mandelson Production. The Masses, don't you know.

We now know that Princess Diane was a deeply disturbed, vicious, manipulative, self-absorbed, bulemic who destroyed everyone she touched. I am beginning to think she was the People's Princess after all, because its looking more and more like the U.K. truly deserved her.